Correction: North Texas-Deadly Wreck story

December 18, 2015

DALLAS (AP) — In a story Dec. 15 about the search for a Texas teen whose lawyer used an “affluenza” defense at his sentencing for causing a deadly car crash, The Associated Press erroneously reported the teen’s age. Ethan Couch is 18 years old, not 19.

A corrected version of the story is below:

‘Affluenza’ teen sought after probation officer lost contact

‘Affluenza’ teen serving probation for killing 4 people in crash sought for failing to report

DALLAS (AP) — A juvenile-court equivalent of an arrest warrant has been issued for a teenager who killed four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck near Fort Worth, then claimed as part of his defense that he suffered from “affluenza.”

Ethan Couch’s attorneys told KXAS-TV (http://bit.ly/1QnF8iz ) of Fort Worth-Dallas that a judge has issued “a directive to apprehend” Couch after a juvenile probation officer was unable to contact 18-year-old Couch or his mother, with whom he was living.

Couch was 16 when he drunkenly rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people, killing four. Two years ago, he was given 10 years’ probation after his attorneys asserted Couch’s wealthy parents coddled him into irresponsibility. Prosecutors wanted a maximum sentence of 20 years in state custody.